Kaitlin Heffron

The physical presence of other people can be stressful during performance tasks. The current study predicts that the physical presence of a single stranger will relate to physiological, selfreport and bodily indicators of perceived psychological stress as compared to a control condition with no experimenter physically present. Undergraduate students completed a series of questionnaires related to life stress and personality dimensions, after which they performed a karaoke song. Both conditions performed the karaoke song to a video recorder while heart rate and breathing were recorded, but in the experimental condition the experimenter was physically present during the karaoke performance. The results support the hypothesis that physical presence can be unseen yet still impact stressful situations, suggesting that physical presence induces psychological stress even without participant access to experimenter social feedback. Research into physical presence holds broader applications for stress mitigation in public speaking and performance situations.